Tag Archives: social olympics

As costs for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia spiral to in excess of $50 billion dollars, Putin’s Games goes behind the scenes to investigate why the first Winter Games to be held in a sub-tropical resort have become the most expensive Olympics ever. With extraordinary access to top government officials and wealthy Russian businessmen, the documentary follows the preparations from the early stages, exposing alleged corruption, the sky-rocketing budget and the big winners and losers. Putin’s Games questions the entire Sochi nomination, while revealing the environmental and human costs of constructing a faux “winter” for the upcoming Winter Games. “You’d have to spend a long time searching the map of this huge country to find someplace with no snow,” says Boris Nemtsov, a member of the Russian Opposition Coordination Council. “Putin found it.”

The city of Sochi on “Russia’s Riviera” is a traditional summer resort for Russia’s rich and beautiful. The Mayor of Sochi, Anatoly Pakhomov, acts as tour guide as he shows off the progress being made in preparation for the Games. “We are building a great sports festival for the entire world,” he says.

But some see the decision by the International Olympics Committee to choose Sochi as host of the 2014 Winter Olympics as bizarre. When the IOC made its decision, there was not one single venue fit for Olympic purposes of any kind in Sochi. Garry Kasparov, former World Chess Champion and political activist says, “Aside from Putin’s particular ability to lobby for it in one-on-one talks, I think the IOC was taken in by the belief that any problem can be solved with enough money.”

“Vladimir Putin personally met with almost all the IOC representatives,” says Leonid Tyagachev, former President of the Russian Olympic Committee and a Russian Senator. “The amounts of euros and dollars tossed around were practically unlimited.”

As we watch the Olympic site take shape, Putin’s Games reveals the stories of corruption and bribery behind the Games. Valery Morozov, a well-known Russian contractor describes how he fled to the UK after bribes were demanded in exchange for a lucrative construction project in Sochi. Elena Panifilova, Executive Director of Transparency International Russia summarizes the dilemma,” You can be an accomplice or a victim. The choice is yours.”

Some residents of Sochi complain that the Games have ruined their resort town. The massive construction projects have left the area scarred with giant landfills, polluted rivers and the destruction of nature reserves. Over 200 Olympic facilities will eventually be built, not including the infrastructure needed to support it.

“When we finish the cosmetic work, the pavement and flowers, it will be great, says Sochi Mayor, Anatoly Pakhomov. He is undeterred by the critics. “Our city is a park. It’s meant for leisure not corruption. So all this talk about corruption hurts me.”

Putin’s Games is directed by Alexander Gentelev.

During the production of Putin’s Games, the producers were offered 600,000 euros not to show the film anywhere, but they refused. Recently, Russian authorities tried to cancel its only scheduled screening in Russia, but the largest documentary festival in Moscow went ahead with the premiere and had a standing room only crowd.

American track and field athlete, Lolo Jonesshared a controversial tweet about the U.S. men’s archery team, which is still being discussed online.

Greek track and field athlete, Voula Papchristou, was removed from the games after a racist tweet about the athletes from Africa.

And Swiss football player, Michel Morganella, was kicked off the team aftertweeting a threat against the South Koreans.

A reputation can be enhanced or destroyed online in a matter of days. Reputation management tactics, while valuable and effective, can only go so far.

People talk. And today, people share.

Information is available within seconds and goes around the world in the blink of an eye. What you say you stand for and the actions you take online are easily discovered, whether you are a brand spokesman or officer, a celebrity, an Olympic athlete, or an individual.

For anyone who is not experienced in communicating with the media, training can be extremely valuable and can make the difference between making a strong positive impression and coming across as an idiot–or worse. For some of the athletes in the glare of world attention, training in what is considered appropriate use of online media could have helped save a spot on the Olympic team.

Media training can include information about how to dress appropriately for an interview, how to pause before answering a journalist’s questions, how to stay focused on a particular message, or even how to sit or stand to portray the right impression in television or video interviews.

Much of the advice is simply practical. Some of the training includes rehearsal of approved talking points, and stopping to think before responding.

Postings, blogs, and tweets should at all times conform to the Olympic spirit and fundamental principles of Olympism as contained in the Olympic Charter, be dignified and in good taste, and not contain vulgar or obscene words or images.

Unfortunately, these five athletes overlooked what to them may have seemed like unimportant fine print. Guidelines serve an important function but training and rehearsal help people take ideas from concept to solid understanding.

In today’s uber-connected online world, knowing how to use social networks and digital tools effectively is imperative. For anyone who may be thrust into the glare of world wide publicity, like an Olympic athlete, there are basic things one does and does not do using social media.

The 2012 Olympics were relentlessly hyped for months as the “world’s first social games” — and, about halfway through, they haven’t disappointed. Athletes have shared the Olympic experience as never before on Twitter, Instagramand other platforms, while fans have kept a running dialogue online too. We’ve covered the action from afar here atMashable, but wanted to get an added perspective from a social media heavyweight who’s on the ground at the Games.

Enter Anthony De Rosa. He’s the social media editor for Reuters and a noted expert in the space. On Twitter, he has more than 33,000 followers and is a staple of must-follow lists around the web.

De Rosa is currently in London for Reuters, running the news service’s live blog for some 12 hours per day. But he recently found a few spare moments to answer some of our questions via email.

The biggest social media-related aspect of these Games that fans stateside may not be aware of? De Rosa says it might the level of enforcement by event officials looking to prevent Wi-Fi overload.

“They actually have people with devices that look like big megaphones that jam Wi-Fi signals of unauthorized hotspots,” he writes. “This seems like overkill but I guess they don’t want interference with other official devices. I think as we see social media as a huge part of the games as this Olympics did, they’re going to have to allow for hot spots to make it easier for people to communicate from the events.”

One of the biggest athlete-related social media stories out of London revolved around British diver and teen idol Tom Daley. After Daley disappointed in the men’s synchronized diving finals, a Twitter troll sent him a mean message referencing his recently deceased father. But then Daley used Twitter to publicly out the troll. He was later arrested on suspicion of malicious communications, to the surprise of some.

“I’m not sure most people outside of Europe knew about UK’s harassment laws and how they apply online,” De Rosa writes. “They do now.”

The most consistent Internet buzz in the States has surrounded NBC’s coverage of the Games, with many disgruntled tweeters using the #NBCFail hashtag to complain. De Rosa, who has followed the BBC’s coverage and calls it “fantastic,” says it’s hard to compare the two networks given that the NBC audience has to deal with a time difference of several hours.

So do British fans have a take on #NBCFail?

“I think Londoners are aware of the NBC thing and they sympathize with their friends in the U.S. ,” De Rosa writes, “but they’re mostly too busy enjoying the games to care much.”

Your Twitter Guide to London 2012

Posted on July 27, 2012

The Olympics are upon us, you’ve charged up your mobile, you’ve wiped down your iPad, you have no data limits. Now, what should you do to make sure you don’t miss out on crucial information as the Games begin?

Here’s a quick guide to some of the key Twitter accounts that are worth following, but don’t forget to use Twitter lists and hashtags as a filter for information. It’s not everything, but not a bad start. If there’s anything significant I’ve missed, drop me a line!

The best way to do this is to discover which hashtags are beginning to trend around any particular event. It might be #100m or #archery, but you’ll find the best one by searching among your Twitter peers. Most likely, #London2012 will be far too populated to function effectively, but #London2012Festival might be a good tip for cultural activity.

The Organizers

@SebCoe ‘the boss’ – not many personalized tweets, but the top guy at LOCOG

@IamWenlock ‘the Olympic Mascot’

@IamMandeville ‘the Paralympic mascot’

@AlexBalfour2012 ‘the social media guy’ – LOCOG’s Head of Social Media, if the website goes down, blame Alex.

@London2012Fest – official account of the London 2012 Festival. If you don’t have a ticket for any sport, or even if you can’t get to London for the Games, then this is a good place to start, as you can participate in a range of cultural activities taking place wherever you are over the next 2 months.

@RuthMackenzie – Director of London 2012 Festival and a recent Twitter convert, good content, tweets, and replies.

@paulwoodmansey – PR for London 2012 Festival. If it’s on, Paul is there!

The IOC

@olympics – the main IOC account, not much engagement, but good links to Olympic family people (athletes, etc)

@AlexHuot – the IOC’s Social media Director, plugs into SXSW and other cool camps

The Help

@L2012Spectators – for travel advice, especially for ticket holders

@VisitBritain – in case London gets too much, find out what is happening elsewhere in the UK during the Games

The Culture

Remember that the Olympics are not just about sport, there are 12,000 cultural events happening around the Games period, many of which are free.

@ArtistsLead – Artists taking the lead is a series of major commissions around the UK, try to see them all for a really breath taking experience

@LegacyTrustUK – whether you knew it or not, there has been a lot of Olympic & Paralympic activity in your region funded by Legacy Trust. While their account is not very active, their links will take you to activity taking place in your region.

@thespacearts – perhaps the most innovative project of any Olympic Games ever, a collaboration between the BBC and Arts Council England to revolutionize broadcasting of cultural events

@edfringe – ok, it’s not really London 2012, but there is other art stuff happening during the Games, you know!

The Athletes

@TeamGB – scroll through who they are following to find your Olympic hopeful or hopeless

@ParalympicsGB – the primary account for British Paralympian team.

@TomDaley – not a swimmer, a diver!

@OscarPistorius – ‘the blade runner’ making history by qualifying for the Olympic Paralympic Games

@ChrisHoy – cycling legend

@MatthewCPinsent – rowing veteran

@SkeletonAmy – zooms down hills at the Winter Games

@NickSymmonds – the World’s most social media savvy athlete. Auctioned space on his left shoulder on eBay to fund his career. Winner would have their Twitter handle tattooed there during 2012.

@JDE66 –Jonathan Edwards, triple jump world record holder and overall London 2012 ambassador

Also check out the IOC’s Athlete Hub, which takes you to social media links for athletes: http://hub.olympic.org

The Media

@BBC2012 – the principal account for the London 2012 BBC team

@RogerMosey – Director of the BBC 2012 programme, follow him for a more personal insight into what the beeb are doing

@NBCOlympics – at the Beijing 2008 Games, the NBC Twitter list was the most followed worldwide and NBC partnered with Twitter to create a great guide to the Games for tracking athlete data.

@PearceSport – the BBC’s sport anchor James Pearce, always in the thick of things

@C4Paralympics – for the first time, Channel 4 are broadcasting the Paralympic Games. Check in with this account for their contribution

@InsideTheGames – novel news start up for 2012

The Sponsors

Not all of the sponsors have Twitter profiles, but here are some examples that have generated a lot of activity. You can also visit the Olympic Sponsor pavilions when the Games begin.

@BPLondon2012 – Cultural Olympiad premier partner

@CadburyUK – expect free, Olympic themed chocolate

@CokeZone – Coca Cola has a number of Olympic twitter ids, this is the one for the Torch Relay, for which it is presenting partner. Keep an eye out for their pin trading id, to participate in the unofficial Olympic sport.

There’s a storm coming, a social media storm. Even before the first Olympic athletic event takes place in London, in social media circles Tweeps are arguing about who should get the gold medal for hosting the first ‘Social Media Olympics.’

“We are at a dawn of a new age of sharing and connecting, and London 2012 will ignite the first conversational Olympic Games, thanks to social media platforms and technology,” Alex Huot, the I.O.C.’s head of social media, tells the New York Times via e-mail.

“When fans look back on the coming weeks, one thing many will remember is how London 2012 was the first ‘social media’ games,” says Dave Lee, technology reporter with BBC News.

“The only problem with the claim is that it is simply not true,” says Graeme Menzies, the former director of online communications and social media for the 2010 Winter Olympics. “There seems to be a sense among the British media that, because Vancouver 2010 was a Winter Games, it doesn’t count,” he adds. “Or, because there weren’t as many people engaged on social media as there are today, it doesn’t count.” Menzies likens London’s claim to saying that Americans were the first in space because Yuri Gagarin was a Russian and he was only in space for 108 minutes.

“Summer Olympics are much more widely followed than their winter counterparts, so the Vancouver Games did not register in the same way in the social media stakes,” says Eric Pfanner of the New York Times.

The Olympics are about so much more than setting records, and yet there is a fascination with the goal of being “the first.” So it ought not to surprise anyone that the British media have been quick to convince themselves and to unabashedly proclaim that the London 2012 Summer Games, which start on Friday, are “the first social media Olympics.”

The only problem with the claim is that it is simply not true.

The Vancouver 2010 Winter Games were the first social media Olympics, and everyone on this side of the pond certainly knows it.

I recently challenged BBC technology writer Dave Lee on this claim through a Twitter exchange, but he was not the first to ignore or dismiss the fact that it was Canada’s Games, the 2010 Olympics, that were the first to officially and strategically use social media in the execution of an Olympics.

There seems to be a sense among the British media that, because Vancouver 2010 was a Winter Games, it doesn’t count. Or, because there weren’t as many people engaged on social media as there are today, it doesn’t count.

To my thinking, that’s rather like saying that Americans were the first in space because, you know, Yuri Gagarin was a Russian and besides he was only in space for 108 minutes.

The Brits can be as dismissive of our Olympics as they wish, but Canadians can be proud that the Vancouver Olympics were the first to be live-tweeted, the first Olympic Organizing Committee to ever have an official mobile app (with more than one million downloads from more than 50 countries) and the first to have an official Facebook page (with over 1.1 million followers), to name a few firsts.

Anyone who bought the Official 2010 Commemorative Book has seen the tweets that athletes and fans from around the world shared with each other during every minute of those Games.

But what is perhaps far more interesting than who did it first is how management of the social media landscape has evolved in the last 28 months.

With the Vancouver Olympics, the International Olympic Committee was hands-off and let Vanoc take the lead with regard to social media activation and innovation. There were few to no IOC rules about social media use — by fans, or athletes, or anyone else.

Vanoc’s approach toward social media mirrored the approach toward hosting the sport events: The task was to provide a safe, secure, trustworthy, authentic place for athletes and fans to enjoy the events, and to make sure everyone had the important information they needed.

Since Vancouver 2010, however, the IOC has moved aggressively to take control and occupy the social media space.

The most noteworthy example is the IOC’s recently launched Olympic Athletes Hub website to connect fans with athletes through social media. A fine idea, but there is a hitch. Athletes must sign terms and conditions to register their Twitter handles in order to participate. Fans need to create an account as well, which allows the IOC to read their tweets and see who they follow.

The IOC has also moved to include Instagram images on its hub with a feature called Faces of Olympians. Of course, you have to create an account to be able to see the images. It also seems the images will be curated — not the raw, unfiltered content users might otherwise expect. Under the user terms and conditions, the athletes also surrender rights to their images to the IOC.

On Twitter, the IOC has captured a much larger audience than the local organizing committee (one million versus 600,000) and competes with the local organizers to capture and retain the audience. They recently posted behind-the-scenes images from the torch relay, for example, content that the local organizing committee and thousands of volunteers create, but which the IOC uses to capture and build its online audience.

The IOC has also elbowed local organizing committees out of the Facebook space, competing with the London organizers for audience share. The official IOC Facebook page has 2.5 million “likes,” while London’s is still below one million.

It’s hard not to conclude that the social media aspect of the Olympics has been significantly commercialized. Or, to paraphrase a recent tweet by Canadian Olympic skeleton racer, gold medallist Duff Gibson: 2010 was about using social media, while 2012 appears to be about controlling social media.

From my point of view, it seems the Vancouver Games were not only the first actual social media Olympics, but they were also the last unfettered social media Olympics — the last Olympics where athletes, fans and local organizers could connect with each other through social media and share their experiences in a relatively free and less commercialized way.

Graeme Menzies is the former director of online communications and social media for the 2010 Winter Olympics, and author of “Social Media for Communications Professionals.”

Media outlets are billing the upcoming London Summer Olympic Games as “the first social media Olympics.” That means athletes and coaches will be posting, tweeting, Facebooking and generally bringing fans closer to the action more than ever before. So why is the International Olympic Committee trying to censor participants?

During the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing, Facebook had 100 million users and Twitter six million. This time around, athletes, coaches and other participants will address 900 million Facebook members and 140 million Twitter members. The Internet Olympic Committee is aware of both the benefits and pitfalls of participants communicating directly with fans. It also recognizes that social media will be a huge part of the Olympic experience. So, while the organization is encouraging athletes to blog, tweet and use Facebook during the games, it has also issued guidelines that must be followed by participants.

Some of the guidelines are clearly motivated by the IOC’s need to protect the investment of broadcasters and advertisers who have paid to be officially linked to the Olympics. For example, one rule states that “participants and other accredited persons are not permitted to promote any brand, product or service within a posting, blog or tweet.” That is, if Nike sponsors an event, participants had better not tweet on behalf of Reebok.

Others are more ambiguous. For example, “Postings, blogs and tweets should at all times conform to the Olympic spirit and fundamental principles of Olympism as contained in the Olympic Charter, be dignified and in good taste, and not contain vulgar or obscene words or images.” This directive leaves a gaping gray area in which athletes can’t possibly know what might offend the committee.

Brad Shear is an attorney and author of the Shear on Social Media Law blog. In a recent interview with ReadWriteWeb, he said that the IOC is well within its rights to have a social media policy that includes potential sanctions. Olympians have a variety of contractual obligations and agree to rules and regulations that apply when they reside in the Olympic Village. “When you have a contractual relationship, you can be punished,” he said, “and if you don’t abide by the regulations, you can be punished. Being an Olympian is a privilege, not a right.”

Alex Huot, IOC Head of Social Media, emphasized in a keynote speech at April’s TheNextWeb2012 conference that the Olympic governing body is focusing primarily on facilitating connections between fans and athletes, and paying close attention to what types of interactions the fans prefer.

If fans prefer interactions that the committee deems unseemly, though, they’ll be out of luck. What one person considers in good taste, another may not. In one culture, a word may be considered an obscenity, while in another, the same word may rarely raise an eyebrow. While many calls will simply rest on the committee’s judgment, in most cases the remedy will be simple: The IOC will issue a takedown notice to the participant, simply stating that the content must be removed from the athlete’s Facebook page, Twitter account or blog. The consequences of failure to comply are not clear. The committee threatens sanctions, but it hasn’t yet specified specific penalties.

Shear said he believes that the IOC’s social media policy is, at best, a work in progress, and that both official Olympic sponsors and the IOC will likely learn some hard lessons as the 2012 games progress. ”It’s a great idea to protect advertisers in digital space,” he said. “But if Olympian A tweets, factually, that he had a Hershey’s bar, another company that has paid to be the official Olympic candy bar can complain that the tweet is harming their brand. What is the IOC going to do about it? They will ask the athlete to remove the tweet, but once it’s been retweeted, once it’s out there online, it’s hard to remove.”

The 2012 Olympics in London are being touted by some as the world’s “first social Games.” While some question just how social they’ll actually be, there’s no doubt that networks such as Facebook, Twitter andYouTube will play an unprecedented role in how information is disseminated from London, and how the global sports conversation is driven during July and August.

Why the big shift? It’s simple: Four years is an eternity in Internet time and since the last Summer Olympics in 2008, social media has exploded.

Web use in general has grown rapidly, too. In 2008, there were about 1.5 billion Internet users globally, according to the International Telecommunications Union, making up about 23% of the world’s total population. By this summer’s games, that number will have swelled to about 2.3 billion users making up about a third of the world’s total population.

Summer Olympics feature some of the most popular international sports — including soccer, basketball, swimming, and track and field — so that’s sure to fuel the global buzz as well. For more context on just how and why social media will reshape this year’s Olympics in relation to 2008, we thought it’d be interesting to take a quick look at a few of the world’s most popular networks and how they compare then and now.

Facebook

2008: A tweet in August of 2008 from then-Facebook executive and eventual Path co-founder Dave Moringleefully celebrated Facebook breaking the 100 million-user threshold. 2008 was also marked by reports around the web of Facebook — gasp! — passing MySpace in popularity. The social network debuted its now omnipresent chat feature that year as well.

Today: Facebook claims more than 900 million users, is fast becoming a portal to the web at large for many and is a publicly traded company. Its founder Mark Zuckerberg is a global celebrity.

Twitter

2008: 2008 saw explosive growth for Twitter, and it still finished the year with about 6 million registered users who sent about 300,000 tweets per day. The social network and its users were still very much finding their way, as evidenced by this official blog post explaining @replies. In 2009, Minnesota Timberwolves forwardKevin Love would tweet that the team’s coach had been let go, breaking the story and causing some in the sports world to speculate that maybe, just maybe, the service could change how news was delivered and consumed.

Today: Twitter currently claims more than 500 million users who collectively send some 400 million tweetseach and every day. Sports news regularly breaks on the network, it’s become a prime marketing channel for athletes and much of the London 2012 conversation among media and fans is sure to take place there.

YouTube

2008: By fall of 2008, YouTube users were uploading 10 hours of video to the site per minute. The site had emerged as the go-to destination for web video and had been acquired by Google two years prior. It also launched its mobile site, pre-roll ads and 720p HD option in 2008. But that success was nothing compared to what the site would look like four years later.

Today: Iconic Olympic moments are sure to go viral and become immortalized on YouTube seemingly as they happen this summer, and it’s easy to see why. The company says it receives over 800 million unique visits per month. Those visitors watch more than 3 billion hours of video per month and upload 72 hours of new video content per minute. Five hundred years’ worth of YouTube video are watched on Facebook every day and more than 700 YouTube videos get shared on Twitter each minute.

What It All Means

Just looking at the the three most ubiquitous social networks reveals a sporting scene and world at large that have been transformed by social media since the last Summer Olympics. And that doesn’t take into account services like Pinterest, Foursquare and Google+ — none of which even existed in 2008. This summer, expect news to break, social sharing records to fall and moments to live on as never possible before thanks to social media. And to think — this will all pale in comparison to what 2016 has in store.

Today’s social community isn’t what it was during the Beijing Olympics. This year’s summer Olympics will be what some are calling the first “Socialympics.”

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has revamped its social media policies. And those strict rules also apply to Facebook and Twitter. If you’re a marketer or social media manager, here’s what you need to know before sharing:

Brands cannot associate themselves with the Olympics.

You must comply with the Olympic Association Right (OAR) and London Olympic Association Right (LOAR)

Provide the facts and take a journalistic approach to avoid violating restrictions.

Avoid marketing campaigns framed around the Olympics.

With so many restrictions, what are marketers to do? Taking a journalistic approach to sharing content about the Olympics seems to be the safest way marketers can still participate in the conversation, according to Rachel Boothroyd, general counsel of eModeration.com. Retweet, post, “like,” etc. the information that news outlets and other users are already sharing.

With so many social channels in use, there will be plenty of opportunities to participate. Here are seven of the most popular social channels you can use to keep up with news and join in on the conversations for your own journalistic efforts.

1. Online Olympic Communities

Several websites are available to help keep you up-to-date on the Olympic activities before, during and after the events. These are the official websites:

With more than 1,000 athletes participating online, the Olympic Athletes’ Hub is the online community sports enthusiasts really should know about. Connect with athletes in real-time chats, get updates about your favorite names and participate in the Hub community to earn points and badges.

Many of the sites do a great job of integrating Facebook and Twitter open graph. When signing up for the Olympic Hub site for example, users can sign in using Facebook or Twitter.

4. Google+

The Olympics use of Google+ has proved meaningful for engagement and activity. More than 300,000 users have the London 2012 Google+ page in their circles, with many posts receiving more than 50 comments and +1s.

5. YouTube

In a recent Mashablearticle, a USOC (United States Olympic Committee) representative shared that their choice to use YouTube as a channel was in large part due to the platform’s reach. They plan to push five to 10 videos per day during the Olympics, in an effort to grow and effectively use the Team USA YouTube channel.

6. Photos/Pinterest

Photo galleries on the Olympics website are available for search and share on Twitter, Facebook, even Google+, but an official Pinterest page doesn’t yet exist. The IOC does, however, have a Flickr account that you can follow for updated photos at London 2012 Flickr group.

7. Shazaam

A recent partnership between Shazaam and Comcast’s NBCUniversal will allow Shazaam users to access additional content when using the app during broadcasts on five NBC networks. The recent integration of Shazaam with the Grammys proved successful, so it could also perform well at the Olympics.